Marco da Silva Ferreira: F*cking Future review – voice of the moment calls for protest through partying

Sadler’s Wells East, London
With a 3am aloofly sexy vibe, the Portuguese choreographer’s slow build is subtly intoxicating – while its intensity will leave you craving more

Last year, for dance’s answer to the Turner prize, the Rose international dance prize, four choreographers competed for £40,000. One of those finalists was the Portuguese choreographer Marco da Silva Ferreira. He didn’t win, but he definitely marked himself out as an of-the-moment voice. His work has echoes of Hofesh Shechter and Sharon Eyal, but with its own clear agenda: protest through partying; activism meets choreographic collectivism; aloofly sexy, beautiful people, clubby beats, a somewhat 3am vibe and a conviction that the world should be a better place.

Da Silva Ferreira’s dance is like minimalist music: small cells of movement, repeated, gradually shift and morph. A slinking step, a strut, the pop of a muscular torso, a slippery moonwalk, etc, etc. Eight dancers are in unison, but there’s no sense of them being automatons – they’re real, sweaty humans in shiny trousers and chainmail vests with red makeup smeared under their eyes. This piece, F*cking Future, is all about the slow build. The kind that might seem boring till you tune in and live it with them, beat by beat.